Posh Restaurant and Supper Club‘s abrupt closing today left a number of fans scrambling for their fix of chef Christopher Willis‘ righteous wings and drumsticks, a collection of spicy and/or soy-slathered bird parts known as Mad for Chicken.
Since the restaurant hasn’t been forthcoming with details yet, Y&H contacted Willis for his take on several questions, including his own future and the future of those drooled-over pieces of chicken.
“I have a couple of things going on like interviewing for personal chef and other exec. chefs thing but I can’t go into detail about them,” Willis wrote Y&H via e-mail this afternoon. The chef said he was headed to Liberia on the west coast of Africa in April to consult for the other Posh restaurant at the RLJ Kendeja Resort & Villas.
He “had a great run [at Posh] and I learned so much from this endeavor,” Willis wrote. “I had a great following of customers and I hope to stay in the DC area. I feel the cuisine here in DC is up and coming and I feel that DC food scene is going to top New York and Chicago soon.”
As if on cue, Willis notes that he will be part of the D.C. Dream Team that will be cooking on March 10 at the James Beard House in New York City. The other chefs include Jeffrey Buben, R.J. Cooper, Enzo Fargione, Todd Gray, Peter Smith, Roberto Donna, and Michael Harr, among others.
As far as Mad for Chicken, Willis says its future is out of his control. He suggests I contact Derek Newton, the chef’s old boss at Posh. Newton apparently controls the rights to the Mad for Chicken recipe or maybe controls the local franchise rights for the small chain. Willis says the dish could make an appearance in the future, but he wasn’t sure. I have contacted Newton for a more concrete answer.
In the meantime, don’t be surprised if Willis makes the jump into personal cheffing. He’s done it before. He served as Tom Clancy‘s personal chef for about three and a half years. I had to ask: What are Clancy’s favorite foods?
Clancy is a steak and potatoes man, he says, which should be no surprise for a writer of his genre. But Willis added that “he also loved his occasional Big Mac.”